How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent Essay, Research Paper

HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENTS

This book is a story about 4 sisters who tell their stories about living on an island in the Dominican Republic , and then moving to New York . What is different about this book is the fact that you have different narrators telling you the story , jumping back and forth from past to present . This is effective because it gives you different view point s from each of the sisters . It may also detract from the narrative because of the fact that it s confusing to the reader . This is a style of writing that has been recognized and analyzed by critics . Julia Alvarez is a well- known writer and in a way , mirrors events that happened in her own life , in her book . Looking into her life , it show s that she went through an experience somewhat like the sisters . I interviewed an immigrant , not from the same ethnic back ground as the sisters , but a Japanese immigrant . This was a very

interesting conversation because there were a lot similarities in adjusting to living in the United States . This book shows a viewpoint of the sisters coming to America . I classify this as American literature because the book was written in a style that would make it easy to read for a people to read here . There is mixed language , and there is really no strong presence of Spanish being spoken . Alvarez is a interesting writer because she uses writing as a tool to find out what she is thinking , and to understand things ,while developing books that are fun to read . If you take this book for example , it s what she thinks about immigration and her understanding of the subject . This book was made for everyone to see what the immigration experience is like . Immigration appears to be an experience of struggle , and change shared by immigrants no matter what the origin .

Alvarez was born in New York and then moved to the Dominican Republic shortly after she was born . Later in 1960 , she immigrated back to New York and received her education in boarding schools . She has spent a majority of her life in the United States , and considers herself to be an American , yet she likes to bridge the two worlds of Latina and American culture . Most of her stories have hints of her Dominican roots but she show s her experiences with human insight . Even though her

books may be seen as for Latin people , her writing is not targeted toward a certain ethnic population. The narrative is a reflection of Alvarez s life . It s as if she s speaking to the reader through the characters she created .

Julia Alvarez presents this story in a way that goes back to the past , while pointing at the future . This book acts as a compilation of different stories , told by different narrators , and made into the main story . This style has it s high points as well as the low points . The style chosen by Alvarez show s different viewpoints of the different narrators and it show s the struggle when u compare them of how they are now , and what they went through in the past . The downside of this style of writing is that fact

that it could be confusing to the reader . If you are not used to this style , it could be hard to tell who s talking .If you can follow along with the book then it is actually a nice book to read because of the fact that you can piece everything together and picture the events in your mind . I would say that this style enhances the book only because you can t use confusion as an excuse to say the book is bad . The message attached to this way of writing is the fact that your history is a part of you and it makes you what you are today . The stories from the past tell the different experiences , and you can see how they

affected the sisters in their present experiences .

As part of my research I interviewed an immigrant . I interviewed a man by the name of Chris Tokiko . This was a man who had immigrated from the Japan at the age of ten . The first thing I asked about was language , and if it was a problem for him.Fortunately he was taught English in school and it wasn t a obstacle . The only thing is that he had a stronger Japanese accent and it was hard for the younger kids that were his age to understand . Now the problem is that he feels that his Japanese isn t as good as it used to be . This is what usually happens if the parents don t speak the language at home much . This was the case with Chris . He doesn t quite understand why they decided to speak more English , but he feels that it has taken a toll on his speaking Japanese . This was a problem for Yolanda when she went back to the island in the beginning of the book . Her aunts and family noticed that she had lost her accent . This is significant because of the fact that the title of the book has to do a great deal with the accents. It s the accent that represents where you re from , and if you loose it , then

usually it s almost everything else that goes with it in generations to come .

The next subject I asked him about in the interview was the difference in culture in America . He laughed because there is a big difference in cultures here in America . Years after he arrived here , he began to see the presence of drugs in school . If anyone was ever caught with drugs in a Japanese school , the punishment would be severe . He also noticed that he was getting more comfortable in the American culture . The one thing

that affected Chris the most was that he started to feel that he was in the middle , and didn t feel like he was accepted in either culture . He would go back to Japan and his family says that he s becoming more Americanized and that he should learn how to speak Japanese again . In America his schoolmates would make fun of him up until he was in the later stages of high school . They made fun of his accent , and wasn t able to play a lot of the sports that were popular in high school . Chris also enjoyed Japanese music and he said no one understood why he listened to it . He says he just had a hard time fitting in with the crowd just because of the fact that it was obvious he wasn t from here. This experience was similar to Yolanda went through when she had sexual encounters with Rudolf Elmenhurst . You could say that sex is part of the American culture because it shows up everywhere sooner or later . In college Yolanda was involved with this guy and he always made it apparent that he wanted to have sex with her . She wasn t used to this and didn t even consider having sex before . The whole situation comes to her as a shock but she brushes it off and goes on till Rudy gets tired of it and goes on to another woman .

Sooner or Later an immigrant is going to have to deal with racism . It can come in any form . People could criticize you because of your accent , the way you dress, and the way you look .Chris came at the age of ten , when your schoolmates tend to make fun of you more than ever . He said that the other kids would make fun of him and call him chink eyes , or ching-chong-chinaman. This is odd because of the fact that he s Japanese and not Chinese . He tried telling them but it was all the same to them , it didn t

matter. After a while , this kind of treatment forced Chris to find kids that were more his type . Later on in high school this kind of segregated group pushed him to be categorized as one of those asian people . Chris also experienced racism when he was a young adult . He would go into stores and the owners would follow him because they said asians have been stealing from them . In the book there wasn t so much racism . It was more stereotypical people talking about the sisters . People thought they were the daughters of a rich man , and Rudy Elmherst thought that Yolanda was a strict catholic

girl who wouldn t have sex with him .

Finally I asked if there was anything that Chris wanted to say about his whole experience . He said that it was and still is hard to fit in here in America . In Japan he was taught that it was always education first , but here it seemed as if no one cared about school as much . He says that he wishes he could hold on to his Japanese roots but it s hard because it s not around him everyday , and that he feels like he lost his identity . The sisters experience was similar to Chris s . The end result was the same , The

immigrants felt that there was a loss of identity through the process of assimilation .

Whenever Julia Alvarez writes she focuses her work on everyday commonalties that she recognizes among all people . This is important to her because she want s everyone to be able to relate to the stories she writes about . She has spent most of her life in the United States and considers herself to be an American , yet her writing bridges Latina and American culture . I would consider this book to be American literature because she writes is a way that anyone can just read this book comfortably . There is no strong presence of the culture so the reader doesn t feel as if it s a book for only Latin people . Within her writing , Alvarez tries to uncover the truths that extend beyond any ethnic barriers . This would make it easier for everyone else . Besides the fact that this could be considered American Culture , it still gives everyone else a chance to understand another s culture , and how immigrants in our own families may have struggled like the Garcia Family . Her works reflect the identities as a woman , a Latin American , and as a

American .

This book shows that no matter where you are from , either you or family in the past have struggled through immigration . Every minority that has travelled over to the United States has gone through this process of assimilation . It s always been a matter of fitting in the society at the time . The problem with this is the fact that through generations , assimilation ends up hurting the family customs and traditions . The accent

of the native tongue is lost , certain holidays may not be celebrated the same , and American born generations feel that they might have lost their identity , making it hard to fit in either cultures . Was is significant about this book is the fact it s like telling a story to someone about something that happened when they were kid . Anyone can relate because we all have stories from when we were kids . Alvarez presents this method of writing by making it so that it doesn t feel like it s a story about Latin Americans , when

you know it really is . Alvarez s mission is to show everyone what she has come to understand about ethnic identity , in a way everyone can see .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1)HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS LOST THEIR ACCENT BY JULIA GARCIA

PLUME BOOKS , (COPYWRITE 1991) NY,NY

2)INTERVIEW W. CHRIS TOKIKO BY BRYAN YEE

11/12/99 SF,CA

3)VOICESFROM THE GAPS 11/12/99 WWW.HTTP://VOICES.CLA.EDU/AUTHORS/JULIAALVAREZ.HTML

4)JULIA ALVAREZ (MAJOR THEMES /BIOGRAPHY)

HTTP://WWW.EMORY.EDU/ENGLISH/BAHRI/ALVAREZ.HTML